The Sound of Silence
by LadyAzrael1994
Summary: Erin Talbot is a witch. At age 16, she has been homeschooled since she began her magical education and is finally going to be attending Hogwarts for her final year of school. But she has a unique challenge to face: she's deaf.
1. Intro

Erin

A flashing light and an insistent paw batting at her face woke Erin that morning. Stretching, she shut off my clock and smiled as a black ball of fur stepped onto her lap, purring.

Picking Tyler up, she hugged him tight and got out of bed. Leaving Ty sitting on the bed, Erin went to get ready for today.

This was Erin's last day at home before starting at her new school. It was an awesome boarding school located in an ancient castle in Scotland. She couldn't wait to get there.

'Tomorrow' she told myself. 'Today is for me and my friends here'. The next hour was spent running around having a shower, getting dressed, doing her hair and making her bed before running downstairs, past her brother Jason, and into the kitchen, where her mom sat reading the paper.

She waved before sticking my head in to the fridge to find some food. When Erin turned, her mom, Dayna, was looking at her daughter.

"Are you spending today with your friends?" She asked. Erin nodded. "At Emmett's?" Erin nodded again. "Ok, have fun and be careful". She kissed her mom on the cheek and ran out the door.

…

Her 4 best friends were already waiting for her at Emmett's when she pulled up on her motorcycle; Emmett Kyle, Kini Nelson and Takoda and Rayn Running Wolf. They all jumped on her, laughing, crying and hugging her. She would miss them all so much..

Sitting on Emmett's bed, she sighed and smiled. Across the room, Takoda signed 'are you excited?' Erin nodded.

'I'll miss you guys though', she signed back, 'so how about one last party for the summer?' Everyone nodded, laughing. Erin pulled out her wand and food appeared on every flat surface in the room.

There are two important things to know about this girl, things that few people really knew:

Erin Talbot was a witch. And she was deaf.

…

A muggle-born witch, Erin had been born deaf through a genetic birth defect. When people heard this, they all had eyes full of pity for Erin but she just shrugged it off; she'd never known any different.

Being deaf hadn't really been a handicap for Erin. A brilliant child, she'd learned to sign fluently by age 3, had taught herself to read lips by the time she was 6, spoke well by age 8 and was doing 7th grade schoolwork when she was only in the 5th grade.

Then she'd gotten her letter from Hogwarts.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was the best magic school in Europe. And on Erin's eleventh birthday, the Headmaster, Professor Dumbledore, came and explained to her family that Erin was actually a witch and there was a place waiting for her at Hogwarts. Dayna wasn't too enthusiastic about it because of Erin's deafness; she's a mom, it's her job to worry.

It was decided that Erin would homeschool for a few years before going to Hogwarts. Normally if a witch was homeschooled, it would be her parents teaching her, but since Dayna wasn't a witch, the plan was that Erin would get her work sent to her by owl and a professor would come to her house twice a week.

But this was Erin's final year of magical education and she was really going to Hogwarts itself. And tomorrow was her first day.


	2. Chapter 1

Her brother drove her to King's Cross that morning for her to catch the Hogwarts Express from Platform 9 ¾. He heaved her school trunk out of the back of the car and walked her into the station, where they stopped at the barrier between platforms 9 and 10. Erin gave Jason a big hug, all of her worries and nervousness spilling into that hug and making her not want to let go. He smiled and gently pried her arms apart.

_You'll be fine,_ he signed. _You're strong. Have fun and be good k?_

She nodded and smiled at him, giving him a kiss on the cheek before grabbing her trolley and turning to the barrier.

With a deep breath, she ran straight at it, half waiting to crash right in to it but, instead, she went straight through it, coming out the other side to find herself on Platform 9 ¾, where a scarlet steam engine, the Hogwarts Express, sat waiting for the students it would be taking to the school.

She looked over her shoulder one last time before going in search of somewhere to sit. Finding an empty compartment near the back of the train, Erin let Ty out of his basket before settling herself. She was in the process of shoving her trunk up in to the luggage rack when it started to slip and Erin felt herself falling backwards beneath her trunk.

Letting out a little shriek as she fell backwards, Erin suddenly felt a hand catching her between the shoulders a another reached in front of her, caught her trunk and pushed it back into the luggage rack.

Turning, Erin looked up into the face of a tall, black boy with dreadlocks. He smiled down at her as she got back on her feet.

"Hey," he said, "you alright?" Erin nodded.

"Thanks for the help", she said.

"No problem. What house are you in? I don't remember seeing you around before." Erin shook her head.

"No, I'm new this year. Prof. Dumbledore said i'm going to be in Gryfindor."

"Great!" the boy grinned. "I'm a Gryfindor too. A'deen Jordan, by the way," he said, holding out his hand. "Just call me Deen."

"Erin Talbot," Erin said as they shook hands.

"Pleased to meet you," Deen said, "but I'd better be going. My friends'll be looking for me."

After he was gone, Erin pulled a book from her trunk and settled into a corner, feet on the bench and muscles slowly relaxing. She could feel the train vibrating with the combined footsteps of hundreds of students boarding, looking for compartments, searching for friends. She readied herself for a long ride.

****

Sirius Black, James Potter and Remus Lupin strutted down the length of the train. Or rather, Sirius and James strutted, while Remus followed and rolled his eyes periodically at his friends.

"Seventh year!" Sirius cried, "Only one more year Prongs and then we're free." Janes nodded.

"Right you are Padfoot, we'd best make it a year to remember." He grinned wickedly. "What should we do first? Remus?"

"How about finding a compartment?" Remus suggested. Sirius shook his head.

"You're no fun Moony. Besides, we've never had a problem finding a seat before, the girls love us." He winked at a group of Hufflepuff girls, who all burst into fits of giggles.

"There's a first for everything Sirius. See, this is the last compartment on the train and everything else is full."

James looked through the compartment door at the lone occupant, a girl around their age, 16, 17, with strawberry blonde hair and a book open in her lap.

"No problem Remus, one girl will be easy for us to charm." Remus sighed as Sirius pulled the compartment door open.

"Hey there," he said. "Would you mind if we sit with a pretty lady like you?"

Remus nearly gagged. The girl didn't even blink.

"Excuse me?" Sirius tried again, "can my friends and I sit here?" Still the girl didn't move. "Hey! Are you listening to me?"

"Don't shout Sirius," Remus said as he smacked his friend across the head as he walked past him into the compartment.

****

A pair of black shoes next to her made Erin glance up to find a boy about her own age, with sandy brown hair and a friendly smile, looking down at her. Behind him stood two other boys, both with jet black hair, the taller of the two with a scowl on his face, the other with round glasses and one eyebrow raised.

"Can I help you?" Erin asked shyly.

"My name's Remus," said the boy next to her. "Would you mind if my friends and I sat here?" Erin shook her head.

"Thanks." The boys put their luggage away and sat down while Remus made introductions.

"This is James Potter," the boy with the glasses waved, "and this is Sirius Black", he gestured at the boy with the scowl.

"I'm sorry?" Erin said, "" Cirrus"?"

"Sirius!" Sirius growled. "Sear-ee-us."

"Oh, ok, sorry." Erin said quietly.

"Don't mind him," Remus rolled his eyes. "What's your name?"

"Erin, Erin Talbot."

"Are you new to Hogwarts?" he asked as he sat next to her. She nodded.

"I was home-schooled until now, but it's my last year and I really wanted to come to Hogwarts."

"Cool," Remus smiled. "So you know what house you'll be in yet? We're all Gryffindors."

"Me too," Erin practically beamed.

"Then I guess we'll be seeing each other a lot. I'll let you get back to your book though, I know what it's like being interrupted." he laughed. Erin nodded and reopened her book while Remus moved back to sit with his friends.

*****

"We have to make the first prank of the year really good this time," Sirius was saying. "we'll never have another shot at it."

"You lot have the whole year to prank the Slytherins," Remus protested halfheartedly.

"Ya," James said, "but we'll never have another First Prank of the Year now will we?"

"You will if you don't study this year," Remus muttered. Sirius threw Remus' book at him. "Hey!"

"You're such a killjoy Moony."

"Well then allow me to kill some more," Remus grinned. "Don't you have a Head's meeting you're supposed to be at James?"

"Oh Merlin I forgot! Lily's gonna kill me!" James groaned as he dashed out the door.

He returned about a half hour later and the prank planning began again immediately.

"Sur we can do it," Sirius said. "Why couldn't we?" James was nodding enthusiastically while Remus simply rolled his eyes and restrained himself from pointing out the many flaws he could see I'm this plan.

"Fine," Sirius grinned, "If Remus doesn't believe in us then I guess we'll just have to get another opinion. Oy! Erin!"

The girl didn't answer. Sirius frowned.

"Talbot!" still nothing. Sirius turned back to his friends. "What is it with her? It's like she's deaf or something!"

"Or she's ignoring you," James offered.

"Not helping Prongs."

Remus rolled his eyes yet again, but something Sirius had said had made Remus think. He reached over and tapped Erin on the shoulder: she looked up from her book.

"Well?" Sirius asked. "What do you think?" she looked at him blankly.

"Sorry, what do I think about what?"

"MERLIN!" Sirius shouted. "What's your problem with us? Why are you ignoring us?"

"I'm not ignoring you."

"Yes you are!" Sirius began to pace as he ranted. Erin looked confused; her eyes flickered between Sirius, Remus and James, who were staring at their friend, bedew sighing and quietly going back to her book.

"-that! Well?" Sirius stopped in front of the girl, hands on hips and staring at her. His eyes widened in shock, as did the eyes of the others: how could she have ignored THAT and gone back to reading?

Remus reached over silently to tap Erin's shoulder again. She glanced up, a slightly irritated look on her face.

"Did you want something?" she asked.

"How did you miss that?" James asked in surprise. Erin looked at him:

"Did he say anything important?"

"Uh, not really.."

"Then can I PLEASE go back to my book?"

"But- but-," Sirius spluttered. "How didn't you hear what I just said?"

"Easily I'm deaf."

"You're deaf?" Sirius and James chorused. Remus just sat there.

"But then how can you talk?" Sirius asked. Erin snapped her book shut in annoyance.

"I said I'm DEAF you idiot, not incapable of speech."

"But deaf people can't talk," Sirius proclaimed.

"Sure they can," Remus said, though no one really seemed to notice.

"And exactly how many deaf people have you met?" Erin demanded.

"Um," Sirius managed.

"Right," Erin nodded. "Just me then." It was then that Erin noticed Remus doing something behind his friends: he was signing to her! Slowly, he signed:

_I'm sorry, please don't be o-f-f-e-n-d-e-d. _

It surprised her; she hadn't thought she'd meet anyone at Hogwarts who knew how to sign.

_It's ok,_ she signed back, _he doesn't know. _

_He's an i-d-i-o-t._

Erin smiled. James and Sirius turned to stare at Remus.

"What did you say?" James asked, while at the same time Sirius asked "How do you know how to do that?"

Remus rolled his eyes.

"My sister's deaf."


End file.
